1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of operating a hearing aid. More specifically the invention relates to a method of operating a hearing aid wherein speech intelligibility for the user is optimized. Further the present invention relates to a hearing aid adapted to provide improved speech intelligibility.
In the context of the present disclosure, a hearing aid should be understood as a small, microelectronic device designed to be worn behind or in a human ear of a hearing-impaired user. A hearing aid system may be monaural and comprise only one hearing aid or be binaural and comprise two hearing aids. Prior to use, the hearing aid is adjusted by a hearing aid fitter according to a prescription. The prescription is based on a hearing test, resulting in a so-called audiogram, of the performance of the hearing-impaired user's unaided hearing. The prescription is developed to reach a setting where the hearing aid will alleviate a hearing loss by amplifying sound at frequencies in those parts of the audible frequency range where the user suffers a hearing deficit. A hearing aid comprises one or more microphones, a microelectronic circuit comprising a signal processor, and an acoustic output transducer (which may also be denoted a hearing aid receiver). The signal processor is preferably a digital signal processor. The hearing aid is enclosed in a casing suitable for fitting behind or in a human ear.
The mechanical design has developed into a number of general categories. As the name suggests, Behind-The-Ear (BTE) hearing aids are worn behind the ear. To be more precise, an electronics unit comprising a housing containing the major electronics parts thereof is worn behind the ear. An earpiece for emitting sound to the hearing aid user is worn in the ear, e.g. in the concha or the ear canal. In a traditional BTE hearing aid, a sound tube is used to convey sound from the output transducer, which in hearing aid terminology is normally referred to as the receiver, located in the housing of the electronics unit and to the ear canal. In some modern types of hearing aids a conducting member comprising electrical conductors conveys an electric signal from the housing and to a receiver placed in the earpiece in the ear. Such hearing aids are commonly referred to as Receiver-In-The-Ear (RITE) hearing aids. In a specific type of RITE hearing aids the receiver is placed inside the ear canal. This category is sometimes referred to as Receiver-In-Canal (RIC) hearing aids.
In-The-Ear (ITE) hearing aids are designed for arrangement in the ear, normally in the funnel-shaped outer part of the ear canal. In a specific type of ITE hearing aids the hearing aid is placed substantially inside the ear canal. This category is sometimes referred to as Completely-In-Canal (CIC) hearing aids. This type of hearing aid requires an especially compact design in order to allow it to be arranged in the ear canal, while accommodating the components necessary for operation of the hearing aid.
Prior to use, the hearing aid must be fitted to the individual user. The fitting procedure basically comprises adapting a transfer function dependent on level and frequency to best compensate the user's hearing loss according to the particular circumstances such as the user's hearing impairment and the specific hearing aid selected. The selected settings of the parameters governing the transfer function are stored in the hearing aid. The settings can later be changed through a repetition of the fitting procedure, e.g. to account for a change in impairment. In case of multi-program hearing aids, the adaptation procedure may be carried out once for each program, selecting settings dedicated to take specific sound environments into account.
According to the state of the art, hearing aids process sound in a number of frequency bands with facilities for specifying gain levels according to some predefined input/gain-curves in the respective bands.
The level-dependent transfer function is adapted for compressing the signal in order to control the dynamic range of the output of the hearing aid. The compression can be regarded as an automatic adjustment of the gain levels for the purpose of improving the listening comfort of the user of the hearing aid, and the compression may therefore be denoted Automatic Gain Control (AGC). The AGC also provides the gain values required for alleviating the hearing loss of the person using the hearing aid.
2. The Prior Art
Compression may be implemented in the way described in the international application WO-A1-9934642.
Advanced hearing aids may further comprise anti-feedback routines for continuously monitoring input signals and output signals in respective frequency bands for the purpose of continuously controlling acoustic feedback instability through providing cancellation signals and through lowering of the gain settings in the respective bands when necessary.
However, in all these “predefined” gain adjustment methods, the gain levels are modified according to functions that have been predefined during the programming/fitting of the hearing aid to reflect requirements for generalized situations.
Recently it has been suggested to use models for the prediction of the intelligibility of speech after a transmission though a linear system. The most well-known of these models is the “articulation index”, AI, the speech intelligibility index, SII, and the “speech transmission index”, STI, but other indices exist.
Determinations of speech intelligibility have been used to assess the quality of speech signals in telephone lines, see e.g. H. Fletcher and R. H. Galt “The perception of speech and its relation to telephony,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 22, 89-151 (1950).
The SII is always a number between 0 (speech is not intelligible at all) and 1 (speech is fully intelligible). The SII is, in fact, an objective measure of the system's ability to convey speech intelligibility and hereby hopefully making it possible for the listener to understand what is being said.
The ANSI S3.5-1997 standard provides methods for the calculation of the speech intelligibility index, SII. The SII makes it possible to predict the intelligible amount of the transmitted speech information, and thus, the speech intelligibility in a linear transmission system. The SII is a function of the system's transfer function and of the acoustic input, i.e. indirectly of the speech spectrum at the output of the system. Furthermore, it is possible to take the effects of a masking noise into account in the SII.
The ANSI S3.5-1997 (Revised 2007) standard is based on hearing thresholds for normal hearing persons. However Annex A of the standard discloses a modification of the speech level distortion factor with an additional loss factor that is the part of the equivalent hearing threshold level due to the presence of a conductive hearing loss.
Various procedures have been proposed for correcting the SII protocol to include the so called supra-threshold deficits, but in the ANSI S3.5-1997 (Revised 2007) standard only the effect of an elevated hearing threshold level is included.
EP-B1-1522206 discloses a hearing aid and a method of operating a hearing aid wherein speech intelligibility is improved based on frequency band gain adjustments based on real-time determinations of speech intelligibility and loudness, and which is suitable for implementation in a processor in a hearing aid.
This type of hearing aid and operation method requires the capability of increasing or decreasing the gain independently in the different bands depending on the current sound situation. For bands with high noise levels, e.g., it may be advantageous to decrease the gain, while an increase of gain can be advantageous in bands with low noise levels, in order to maximise the SII. However, such a simple strategy will not always be an optimal solution, as the SII also takes inter-band interactions, such as mutual masking, into account. A precise calculation of the SII is therefore necessary.
This type of hearing aid and methods of enhancing speech are advantageous, but are still based on standard assumptions concerning a user's hearing loss, which means that the hearing aids and the corresponding methods, apart from the measured hearing loss threshold, cannot be individualized to the user.
It is therefore a feature of the invention to provide a method of operating a hearing aid wherein improved speech enhancement is achieved.
It is also a feature of the invention to provide a method of operating a hearing aid with improved means for individualization of the methods to the specific user.
It is a further feature of the invention to provide a hearing aid comprising means for enhancing listening comfort and means for optimizing speech intelligibility in real time.